Re: <none>
Dr.Joerg Bergmann ( (no email) )
Fri, 8 Aug 1997 11:14:26 +0200 (MDT)
> Ram SESHADRI wrote:
>
> >
> > This could be in free format.
>
> The free format is not as free as it looks. If someone want to use an
> old program then always a data converter will be necessary.
> In long term, a standard in file formating will improve our work.
>
> I don't know yet how is NEXUS but I believe that an ASCII format
> -CIF style- will be just fine and not a binary one.
>
> Do we still have to worry about the disk space ?
> How about the time spent to read a binary file ?
I also prefer ASCII format. It's free, that means it's more simple
to extend it in future. I suggest a format, which I learned from PL/1
and found very nice. So I have implemented it in my C programs:
The DATA format. In principle, each item is of the form
name=value
separated by spaces and grouped by newlines. So, in future,
one can add arbitrary items to the format without changing
older programs, in the case they can ignore the new items. Several
developers can do so, parallel, for the same format. Of course,
there may be lines of pure numbers mixed with so-called "header lines"
in DATA format.
Joerg Bergmann
bergmann@rcs.urz.tu-dresden.de